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July 23, 2007
When The Question Is Why Not Hamilton, The Answer Is Toronto
Today in McLean's, Charlie Gillis and John Intini take a look at Jim Balsillie's failure to purchase the Nashville Predators and move them to Southern Ontario. Toward the end of the piece, Gillis and Intini trot out what's becoming an old saw in the Canadian press: The anti-Canadian bias at NHL HQ in New York: Whatever the financial motive, the events have summoned familiar accusations of an anti-Canadian bias at NHL head offices. Richard Rodier, a lawyer who has worked with Balsillie on both the Pittsburgh and Nashville bids, says the league's apparent comfort with a bid that will involve moving the team to Missouri, rather than one that involves moving to Ontario, amounts to an attitude of contempt. "NHL hockey is Canada, and Canada is NHL hockey," Rodier says. If you go back and read the article yourself, there are three words you won't ever read: Toronto Maple Leafs. And when we're talking about the possible relocation of any team to Southern Ontario, those are the three most important words in the English language. Granted, I didn't always think of it that way, as I'm on record as saying I believed the Predators were as good as packed for Ontario as soon as Balsillie started negotiating with Predators owner Craig Leipold. But what I didn't consider at the time, and should have taken into account, is that moving a new team to Southern Ontario is a lot like the process of moving a new baseball team to Washington, D.C. -- problematic at best. For a number of years, Peter Angelos, owner of the Baltimore Orioles, did anything and everything he could to keep baseball out of Washington, a market that he and a number of other Orioles owners considered their own once the Senators picked up and left town after the 1971 season. Eventually, in order to move the Montreal Expos to Washington, the league had to bribe Angelos with a percentage of the Washington's television revenues in order for him to stop fighting the relocation. And don't doubt for a second that Angelos, one of the most successful trial lawyers in the U.S., would have found ways to drag the process out in the courts, regardless of the merits of the case. So while I believe Ontario could support a second hockey team in much the same way that the Baltimore-Washington area could support a second baseball team, that doesn't mean that the folks at Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment have to like it. For them, plunking a second team in Ontario would mean having to compete that much harder for television advertising and even ticket sales. It would mean more competition over time for the Leafs TV cable package. And with another hockey option suddenly nearby, the enormous pricing pressure on Maple Leafs tickets that we always hear about would be eased a bit, as folks on the outskirts of Toronto and closer to Kitchener opted for the new team. All of these issues are also in play, albeit to a lesser extent, with the Buffalo Sabres, a franchise that was always drawn a significant percentage of its gate from across the Canadian border. So here's the deal: If you want another team in Ontario, figure out a way to buy off the Maple Leafs. I'm sure that at some level or another, that must seem incredibly unfair, seeing as how they're the most valuable team in the entire NHL. Well, it wasn't fair when Angelos got his cut of Washington's television money a couple of years back. And it wasn't fair back in 1976 during the ABA-NBA merger when the relatively penniless New York Nets had to pay off the mighty New York Knicks either. Fair was never part of the equation. But it was part of the cost of doing business. If Balsillie wants his team, he better make room for a budget line for cash that will head straight for Toronto. Otherwise, he can just forget it. And that would be a real shame, as Balsillie is just the kind of owner the NHL needs more of. UPDATE: Larry Brooks handled a lot of this in his Sunday column.
Eric
07:06 AM
Trackback PingsTrackBack URL for this entry: CommentsI've seen a lot written on the Toronto problem, and to be honest, when I first heard of the issue I had to look up where Hamilton was. That led me to wonder why no one in Buffalo is worried about this possibility? Hamilton looks to be within an hours drive of Buffalo, and only a little further than Toronto. I've also read that a lot of the fans at a Sabres game are Canadian, so I guess I'm wondering why we're not seeing more coming out of Buffalo or the hockey media on them being worried about the addition of a team in Hamilton? Posted by:
Buffalo is worried, but they don't have television rights across the border to buy off, and they aren't anywhere near as powerful as the Leafs. Plus you have to figure their Canadian gate will take another hit once the passport requirement for land crossings goes into effect next year. Posted by:
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